Patients in hospitals, particularly patients confined to their beds and patients recovering from surgery, trauma, or serious illness, often benefit from respiratory therapy. Common therapeutic exercises and exercise devices offered to such patients include inspiration exercises, typically with the aim of having the patient breathe deeply rather than avoid deep breathing due to fatigue, pain, or other reasons. Typically, a patient using a respiratory therapy exercise device exhales freely, and breathes in (inspires) through the respiratory therapy exercise device. A visual or other indication of the amount of the inspirational effort is typically provided, offering the patient immediate feedback regarding the amount of respiratory force produced, and providing an incentive for continued practice and improvement. For example, in one common respiratory therapy exercise device, balls are visible within transparent columns. Inspiration by the patient lifts the balls; the deeper the inspiration, the higher the ball or balls are lifted. The patient exhales freely after inspiration. Such exercises are thought to be beneficial to patients, for example, by reducing the incidence of respiratory problems such as pneumonia, and may speed recovery of the patient. Patients thought to be at risk for respiratory infections are often encouraged to use such respiratory therapy exercise devices as a way to improve lung function and reduce infections.
Such exercises and exercise devices typically require that the patient make a seal onto a tube placed into the mouth in order to provide suction through the tube to the device for the exercise. Patients having a tracheotomy (an incision in the trachea) with the resulting tracheostomy (an opening in the trachea) typically breathe via the tracheostomy, which typically has a tracheostomy tube inserted into the trachea via the tracheostomy. Tracheostomy patients are often at risk for pulmonary infections, or other respiratory problems, and quite often would benefit from such exercises. However, patients having a tracheostomy cannot provide suction through the mouth due to the tracheostomy tube placed in their trachea. Accordingly, there is need for means for providing the benefits of respiratory therapy exercises to tracheostomy patients.